Do Board Characteristics Matter to the Ethical Reputation of Financial Institutions?

Financial institutions have faced increased scrutiny surrounding their ethical practices following the Great Recession of 2008. This has placed additional pressure on boards of directors to manage the ethical reputation of the banks they serve. In an article published in the Journal of Business Ethics, researchers Emilia and Sami Vähämaa, Laura Baselga-Pascual, and Antonio Trujillo-Ponce hypothesize that a positive relationship exists between director characteristics favoring effective oversight and the ethical reputation of their financial institutions.

Continue reading

Why Banks Value Navigability in Board Management Software

When your bank has the opportunity to gather industry veterans with centuries of experience between them into a single room to make decisions that affect its future, every moment counts. Working fast should never be a goal when “fast” comes at the expense of making well-informed decisions. However, streamlining aspects of your board meetings leaves more time for directors to deliberate on important topics. There are, of course, many ways to streamline your board meetings. Today, however, we’re going to focus on just one: navigating your governance technology.

Continue reading

Managing a Large Board of Directors

Directorpoint recently took a closer look at Deloitte’s Board Best Practices Report. While our deep dive focused in on the financial services industry, a few of our findings have may prove to be universally valuable. Deloitte’s 2017 survey found that the average board of directors is made up of between nine and eleven members. We compared those numbers to the responses from 2014 to learn that boards, at least within the financial services industry, are growing. As we know, a board’s decision-making decreases as the size of the board increases. This knowledge may help smaller boards but reducing the size of a larger board is often unrealistic. So what’s the best way to make sure a larger board of directors is maximizing its decision-making effectiveness? Let’s find out.

Continue reading

What Bank Boards Lose When They Use the Wrong Technology

Earlier this month, Directorpoint published an article in BankDirector.com. In it, we discussed the “magic” of a board meeting. Rarely does a bank have the opportunity to bring decades of experience together in one room to make the decisions that determine its future. It begs the question, then: when the stakes are high and the moment fleeting, why waste a single second?

Continue reading
A bank board member using board software over enterprise communication apps.

Board Software vs. Communication Apps for Bank Boards

Board software gives bank boards the ability to fully operate, deliberate, and vote from anywhere in the world. Board members are busy. A well-designed board portal creates a fully digital deliberative experience. Common board portal features include instant messaging, file sharing, scheduling, and polling. At face value, these features might leave you thinking “why don’t we just use a messaging app?”. Let’s talk about it.

Continue reading

Using Surveys for Better College Board Meetings

The ability to create and share surveys is one of the most useful tools software like Directorpoint can offer a college board. Maybe you use the survey feature, but want to make sure you’re making the most of what it has to offer. Or maybe you haven’t touched the survey tool and are looking for a reason to try it out. Either way, you’re in the right place. This is the first installment of a new series we’re calling Feature Focus where we take a closer look at our features, breaking down the benefits and best practices boards need to know.

Continue reading

How College Boards Avoid Hidden Costs in Board Software Licenses

Navigating the selection of a board software provider can place undo stress on college boards. With many vendors offering nearly identical solutions, each claiming their own to be superior, prioritizing minute differentiators can make a major difference. In this article, we’re taking a closer look at one difference among board software providers that’s costing college boards a fortune.

Continue reading
Seamless Design

One Quality Banks Must Demand of Board Software

At Directorpoint, we don’t like the phrase “less is more”. “Less is more” sounds like an excuse to deliver less. Good board management software delivers more while making it feel like less. Sometimes, making it feel like less means making it look like less. That’s minimalism; little more than an aesthetic choice. What we’re talking about here is seamlessness. When bank boards choose software for their directors, they need to find a portal that offers seamless design in support of seamless functionality. Here’s why that matters.

Continue reading
board software communication

Board Software Communication Vs. Emailing Board Documents

These days, most boards are making the choice to go paperless. While some opt for centralized communication through the use of board software, others have simply stuck to email for their needs.

In fact, according to a 2014 Thomson-Reuters study, approximately 43% of boards were still emailing their sensitive board documents.

While email prevents added costs to board operations, it also poses many potential downfalls and risks.

Email isn’t secure.

You’ve seen the headlines. Email hacks are a dime a dozen these days. Not long ago, we wrote a blog about the infamous Salesforce leak, which originated with an email from Colin Powell.

Because they sent their board documents via email, their hypothetical plans for 14 different company acquisitions became public knowledge.

Continue reading

How to Create Better Board Agendas

Better Board AgendasThe agenda and the board book have been the centerpieces of board meetings for decades. While the board book provides important information and reporting, the agenda acts as the guide for the course of the board meeting.

It may seem like nothing more than a simple list, but the agenda wields serious influence over a board meeting’s progression.

You’re probably thinking, how can a basic list be improved? But we’re here to say that it can be done!

Does this agenda item involve everyone?

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how often boards include agenda items that should actually be discussed in smaller committees or one-on-one outside of the board meeting. Boardroom time should be focused on group-oriented tasks and decision-making in order to get the most collaborative value out of your gathering.

Continue reading